免疫学技术

High avidity, pentameric, single-domain antibodies, oligomerized through the B subunit of verotoxin, are excellent immunohistochemical reagents. The resulting molecules are termed pentabodies. Here, we describe the immunostaining of tissue sections with ES1, a pentabody r ...

One of the advantages of using recombinant instead of conventional antibodies is that these can be easily manipulated by means of standard molecular biology techniques. Therefore this opportunity can be exploited to prepare fusion constructs composed of VHHs and suitable tags. Accor ...

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), followed by microarray hybridization (ChIP-chip) or high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq), is becoming a widely used powerful method for the analysis of the in vivo DNA–protein interactions at genomic scale. The success of ChIP largely dep ...

Fluorescent proteins are widely used to study protein localization and protein dynamics in living cells. Additional information on peptide binding, DNA binding, enzymatic activity, and complex formation can be obtained with various methods including chromatin immunoprecip ...

Increasing serum residence time of drugs by means of fusing them to albumin-binding domain antibodies (AlbudAbs™) has previously been documented. AlbudAbs™ provide a valuable method for increasing the efficacy of drugs by extending the time for which therapeutic levels of drug are pres ...

Antigen-binding fragments, such as single-domain antibodies (sdAbs), can now be readily isolated by in vitro technologies. Antibody fragment libraries derived from immune or nonimmune sources are presented in a molecular display format, typically phage display, and binders to ind ...

Although single-domain antibodies derived from libraries prepared either after animal immunization or na�ve animals generally exhibit reasonable affinity, it is often desirable to further improve their affinity. This chapter describes protocols for improving the affinity ...

Translational bioinformatics plays an indispensable role in transforming psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) into personalized medicine. It provides a powerful method to bridge the gaps between various knowledge domains in PNI and systems biology. Translational bioinformat ...

Finding clinically relevant measures of immune function is an important challenge in psychoneuroimmunological research. Here, we discuss the advantages of the vaccination model, and provide guidance on the methodological decisions that are important to consider in the use of this ...

This chapter explores the reasoning behind using the vaccination model to examine the influence of psychosocial factors on immunity. It then briefly discusses the mechanics of the vaccination response and the protocols used in Psychoneuroimmunology vaccine research, before giv ...

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is a research tool that allows in vivo measurements of brain metabolism and specific target molecules. PET imaging can be used to measure these brain variables in a variety of species, including human and non-human primates, and rodents. PET imaging ...

Natural killer (NK) cells are an essential component of innate immunity. These lymphocytes are also sensitive barometers of the effects of endogenous and exogenous stressors on the immune system. This chapter will describe a chromium (51Cr) release bioassay designed to measure the targ ...

Although many studies have documented peripheral immune alterations in patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders, almost all these data in humans are correlative. The actions of IL-2 on neurodevelopment, function, and disease are the result of both IL-2’s actions in the per ...

The link between systemic autoimmunity, brain pathology, and aberrant behavior is still largely unexplored field of biomedical science. Accumulating evidence points to causal relationships between immune factors, neurodegeneration, and neuropsychiatric manifesta ...

The field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) aims to uncover the processes and consequences of nervous, immune, and endocrine system relationships. Behavior is a consequence of such interactions and manifests from a complex interweave of factors including immune-to-neural and neur ...

Heart failure (HF) is a major and costly public health concern, and its prognosis is grim—with high hospitalization and mortality rates. It is well documented that HF patients experience disproportionately high rates of depression and that depressed HF patients have worse clinical outc ...

Complex disorders like Gulf War Illness (GWI) often defy diagnosis on the basis of a single biomarker and may only be distinguishable by considering the coexpression of multiple markers measured in response to a challenge. We demonstrate the practical application of such an approach using an ...

Cytokines, which are immunological messengers facilitating both intra- and inter-system communication, are considered central players in the neuroinflammatory cascades associated with the neurodegenerative process in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurological ...

Developments in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) need to be translated into personalized medicine to achieve better clinical outcomes. One of the most critical steps in this translational process is to identify systemic biomarkers for better diagnosis and treatment. Applications ...

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are complex and heterogeneous with a spectrum of diverse symptoms. Mounting evidence from a number of disciplines suggests a link between immune function and ASD. Although the causes of ASD have yet to be identified, genetic studies have uncovered a host of cand ...